Question Time at Parliament House, Canberra

E&OE TRANSCRIPT 
QUESTION TIME
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA  
TUESDAY, 18 AUGUST 2026

ANNE URQUHART, MEMBER FOR BRADDON: My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. How is the Albanese Labor Government working with state and territory governments and with industry in order to support the response to the detection of H5 bird flu in Australia?

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: Thanks, Mr. Speaker. And I do want to thank our fabulous Member for Braddon. And I know that the Member for Braddon has been closely following the H5 bird flu outbreak and she now has obviously some detections in her electorate, quite a number in Tasmania. And I do want to reassure the House and the public that our response has been swift and coordinated. And that's because of the early investments that we made. $113 million to make sure we are as prepared as we possibly could be, and that our response capability on the ground with the states and territories is what it should be. But I'm pleased to update the House that the vaccine rollout that I announced last week is progressing, as guided by an agreed national approach and the technical advice of the experts, with states and territories identifying the priority species for vaccination. Over the weekend, the NSW Government has announced priority species identified for potential vaccinations in NSW and they include little penguins and the regent honeyeaters. This builds, of course, on the announcements last week from the Western Australian Government about its vaccination trial of threatened cockatoos at the Perth Zoo, including the Carnaby’s, the Baudin’s and the Forest Red-Tailed Black Cockatoos. The Tasmanian Government, of course, has indicated that it will prioritise the vaccination of the orange-bellied parrots. And I'm pleased to advise the House an update today, the Victorian Government has now commenced the vaccinations of little penguins at Phillip Island and will then do St Kilda. As I have said, the vaccinations are one part of Australia's bird flu response. But strong biosecurity remains our strongest line of defence. The technical advice that our Government has received is that as bird flu becomes more widespread in the wildlife, counting individual confirmed birds no longer gives us the clearest picture of where the disease is spreading. And that's why our reporting of the bird flu detections has now evolved from individual cases to focus on H5 events. And over the weekend, our Government launched a new national reporting dashboard on birdflu.gov au. This dashboard collates the data provided by the states and territories. It shows where the disease is spreading, which species are affected and the number of events in each area. This allows people on the ground to easily understand and see where the bird flu is in Australia. I can report that there have now been over 250 events in Australia of the H5 bird flu, and Australians can be assured that our Government will continue to update the public as regularly as we can, as things change. I want to again thank the Australian public for reporting sick birds. And I can advise that we've now had over 22,000 calls to the national hotline. I want to reiterate that there remains no detection of our bird flu in the poultry or agricultural systems, and that the risk to human health remains low. If you see sick or dead birds, please do not touch them. Avoid contact, record what you see, and go to birdflu.gov.au.